Beer: Ratings & Reviews

Reviews by Bfarr:

Effervescent golden orange, fluffy off-white head with good retention and lacing. Astringent herbal aroma of mostly rosemary. Earthy sour and sage followed by rosemary and a sweet and sour finish and a bubblegum yeast flavor at the end. Starts with a sharp biting feel then finishes slick.

Nice balanced flavors and overall sweetness in this beer. Herbs are nice in the taste but not in the aroma. All around interesting if not subtle flavor. An enjoyable although perhaps a little sweeter than normal for the style. The alcohol is hidden so well there is not even a warming sensation making it a dangerously easy beer to drink.

More User Reviews:

Poured from the 22oz bottle into a snifter. A nice flourish of bright white head quickly dissipates into a thin ring. Body is a fairly still orange color with golden highlights. Aroma of sweet pale malt and tangy Belgian yeast, with mild notes or rosemary and sage. Palate is malt-forward, the light sweetness of the pale malt accented nicely by the saison yeast. Nice herby notes from the sad and rosemary show up on the swallow, along with a very mild bitterness from the hops. Finish is dry and a bit tart. Body is a bit fuller and stickier than most saisons, but isn't particularly unpleasant, just not true to style. This is a very interesting beer and a nice change of pace - I've always thought that more breweries should experiment with savory herbs. Bonus points for trying, though the end result isn't exactly spectacular.

estery belgian nose with a wet grassy tang. herbs, definitely getting the sage more than the rosemary. light, floral hops and saltine crackers

severely medicinal with a pop of sweetness up front before rounding out pretty quickly into chaos. tons of bread on the back end. a few hoppy notes play off the herbs, though not always nicely. offputting menthol. lighter fluid?

honestly, an unbalanced mess. very little about this was enjoyable once the tasting began. Remind me why New Belgium is so huge? I mean, I love La Folie and a decent amount of their experimental beer, but their session stuff is mostly crap and it seems for every good offering, there are three duds like this one. There are 10 breweries in Portland doing more interesting and better executed beers (especially collaborations) than this one. Poor showing, both of you.

- Pretty standard looking ale. A light copper brew, only slightly cloudy. Quick fizzling finger of white head which leaves a medium ring around the glass, and some scattered thin islands. Pretty simple and average.

Smell: (3.5)

- Loverly herbal aromas from the sage and rosemary. Earthy, grassy, and quite floral. Not much as far as malt sweetness, just a bit bready and tart.

Taste: (3.0)

- Pretty heavy malt sweetness, some brown sugars, candy sugar, and a slight hopping which is grassy and earthy. Big sage flavor and rosemary as well. Almost a bit too sweet for me, not bready and biscuit-like enough, and a little too heavy on the herbs.

Mouth Feel: (3.0)

- Slightly drying, well carbonated medium bodied brew. Almost too carbonated. Bit chewy as well, and in a way kind of hard to drink.

Overall: (3.0)

- This beer for me just really isn't that good. I've had my share of farmhouse ales, and this just doesn't come that close to what I think the style should be. Too heavy on the herbal notes, and still overly sweet. For me, I think the yeast should destroy most of the sugars in its flavor.

impreesive apperance with no alcohol taste. This is one of the strangest beers i tried because of the two ingreidents in it rosemary and sage. The smell is rich of hops, rosemary, and sage. The taste is very different taste noting like beer and it taste sort of like candy. I liked it smooth and good kinda reminded me of skittles. overall i say it is worth a try just because it is different from your average beer

Pours a diaphanous golden ale with a fleeting fingers of white, soapy foam. No lace to speak of. Smell hits me initially with what seems like a squash smell. This blooms and offers some sweet wheat smells, yeast, soil and just the slightest rosemary. I can't really smell the sage personally.

The rosemary pairs well with the yeast, although it was not immediately satisfying, the sage showcases here albeit subtly. There was a split second then I thought it was really nasty, but then the beer was able to develop a bit in the mouth. Has a nice floral character to it with some lemon and even a faint praline taste on the finish (which I totally did not expect from a saison). The beer is medium bodied with a full carb and semi wet finish.

This was interesting, but didn't really meet the criteria adverted on the bottle very assertively. I wouldn't purchase again, and I won't advise others to seek it out, but cool to try.

Appearance: light-golden hue with a touch of haze and two fingers of frothy ivory foam. Not much head retention, though, and no lace.

Smell: classic French saison aroma with a hint of sourness and a light funk. The herbs have kind of a minty effect on the final aroma. Decent, but not great.

Taste: funky saison flavor combines with a basic malt to make a decent beer. The herbs do not scream either "sage" or "rosemary", but they do add that minty quality that was present in the aroma as well. Sadly, overall, I don't think this beer works. It's not overtly flawed, but it matches together flavors which I simply don't think play well together.

Mouthfeel: medium body with a good level of carbonation and concomitant creaminess. I like it.

Overall: this beer simply doesn't float my boat. Not bad, but its particular flavor combinations just don't work for me.

On-tap at the brewery. Herbs can become overpowering quickly in the brewing process and this beer seemed to be no exception. The base beer seems solid, clean mild graininess, nice dry yeastiness with plenty of spice, pepper, and fruit (pear and green apple). But the herbs are intense - medicinal and pungent. This was nice as a taster but more than that would be too much. Perhaps a clever pairing would accentuate the better attributes of this beer. On a positive note, the 8.5% ABV was silent.

A - Pours a golden-orange color with a finger of frothy white head. The head fades down fairly slowly leaving behind some nice lace.

S - Aroma is a mix of lots of Belgian yeast esters with some spices including rosemary, sage, and coriander, lemon zest, and some farmhouse smells.

T - Starts off with some fruity esters and some Belgian yeast flavors with some rosemary, sage, and coriander. Through the middle, some lemon zest comes through with some farmhouse flavors, some bready malt, and some more citrus flavor and a touch of pepper. The finish is a mix of spices, yeast flavor, hay, and rosemary.

It was a pretty solid farmhouse ale. Definitely stronger than most, clocking in at 8.5%. However, it doesn't taste that alcoholic. The rosemary and sage come out quite a bit in the taste which, while possibly off-putting to some, I thought worked pretty well with the style. I thought that the beer was not as over-carbonated as I find most farmhouses to be. Overall, a solid beer.

Served in tulip. Poured a nice golden-orange color with a thin cap of white head that had low retention and no lacing.

The beer got off to a good start with a nice, sharp, crisp spicy yeast scent that had good graininess in the background. The flavors were similar, spicy yeast, earthy grain, some herbal notes and a wee bit of funkiness.

The body was pretty good, smooth and well-rounded, and a bit fuller than typical for the style. Drinkability was very good, I could have easily 2-3 more of these. Overall, a nice take on the style. Certainly worth trying if you see it, maybe even some effort to find. I'm not a huge fan of NB, but this is easily one of my favorite brews from from this brewery, and this collaboration.

Well, I think this would classify under the love it/hate it category. I for one hated it. I had to try it after I saw one of my favorite herbs were to be brewed by one of my favorites breweries. Rosemary and beer I've found, don't mix well together (yet?). It's definitely not for those who like classic styles. I'd love to give it another shot just to see it I had that one skunky brew. But, I'll just stick with most everything else they produce!